About Esplora Travel

After several years working as an English teacher in Turkey and London, Damian moved to Sicily in 1997 with the hopeful idea of continuing his career. But his dreams were dashed when he was told he would first have to study for an English degree at the University of Messina. He gave up teaching and became a tour leader instead – in those days for a company running walking holidays. In due course he qualified as a registered tour guide in Sicily and went on to found Esplora Travel where he continues to share his passion for the places he travels through.

Gabriele is the newest member of the team but with his bilingual Italian and English background and his Sicilian upbringing, brings some valuable experience to the team.

After a humanities-focussed education, I joined the family business working in the tourism sector. I was involved in the management of boutique hotels in the Italian regions of the Marche and Umbria, where I am originally from. I worked as a Tour Leader and Manager for more than ten years for a large travel company based in Oxford. I have widely travelled around the globe and I strongly think that “travel doesn’t merely broaden the mind. It makes the mind.” I like doing sports, walking and I do regularly yoga and pilates. In the last few years I have moved to the UK from Italy, I created a cooking/recipes blog where I share some of my stories and I cook on the delivery in the area where I live. I am a licensed Tour Manager and Excursion guide in Italy

I’m Lisa, I come from a small village in the Emilian hills, but I’ve always had the travel bug. After 7 years abroad, I decided to come back, and to dedicate my passion for wandering, working as a tour leader. I’ve been doing it for 2 years and I love it! I am meeting a lot of new people, get to know different cultures and exploring my beautiful country.

Born and raised at the feet of Etna, I graduated in history without knowing what I could do with my studies in the workplace. Since 2007 I have been one of the most active members of Couchsurfing in Catania which is a free hospitality site. This was my personal way to bring the world to my little village on the hills of Etna, hosting people from all over the world. Here I began to experience what it means to make people feel at home in my land, and above all to see the places that are so familiar to me with different eyes. Again thanks to couchsurfing I found a job in a small hostel in Catania which I then managed for 4 years. Here I understood that my work must be in contact with the public, so once the hostel experience was over it was almost spontaneous to become a guide, at first only for Etna, then I qualified as a tourist guide for cultural sites. Since 2015 I have been carrying out this job with passion and dedication, a job that allows me to combine my great passions of being in contact with the public, working in places of beauty and studying the history of my Sicily.

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